No. 8 Michigan State's beatdown of rival No. 4 Michigan could well reverberate the rest of the season and into March. The Spartans unlocked the secrets to containing No. 4 Michigan and exposed its major weakness.

"Our whole premise was to try and keep it out of the paint and Derrick Nix did a great job on those ball screens," Michigan State coach Tom Izzo said after 75-52 victory.

Nix said it was more than scheme. He said it was about revealing the Wolverines' underlying softness, specifically star point guard Trey Burke. And told him so.

"I just got real wide and used my big body on Burke so he couldn't get in the middle and make plays,'' Nix told reporters. "I just told him he was soft. But Burke is a really good player; we were just talking like we always do. There was just a little more talk because it was Michigan.”

The comment stung. And after the game, it's not like the Michigan players disagreed. They were no doubt humbled.

"They bullied us — point blank," Tim Hardaway Jr. said after the game.

Said Burke: "It was an embarrassing loss."

Recovering from such lopsided defeats is tough on the psyche of any team. How the Wolverines respond in the coming weeks will tell whether they're true contenders or just pretenders.

"Maybe we got exactly what we deserve, and it's medicine for the future," Michigan coach John Beilein said.

They have time to recover. The Wolverines two games against hapless Penn State plus a home date with Illinois before the March 2 rematch with Michigan State.